MCPD Charges Prominent Swim Coach With Child Abuse

Prominent area swim coach Rick Curl turned himself in this morning, after police formally charged him with child abuse for an alleged relationship he had with an underage swimmer in the 1980′s.

The allegation that Curl, founder of the former Curl-Burke swim club and a former U.S. National Team coach, had a sexual relationship with an underage swimmer then paid her family to keep quiet surfaced this summer.

Detectives from MCPD’s Family Crimes Division interviewed the accuser, Kelly Davies Currin, now 43 and living in Texas, in August about alleged sexual abuse that occurred in Montgomery County.

Curl, 63, was Currin’s swim coach from the time she was nine until she was 18, police said. Police said inappropriate touching began when Currin was 13 and from age 15 to 18, the abuse progressed into an inappropriate sexual relationship.

The abuse occurred in the swimming facilities at Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda, as well as Curl’s former homes in Rockville and Darnestown, police said.

Police issued an arrest warrant for Curl, now living in Vienna, Va., on Tuesday and he turned himself in this morning.

Curl received a lifetime ban from USA Swimming in September because of the allegations and the Curl-Burke swim club relaunched itself as the Nation’s Capital Swim Club. Curl was named the 1994 American Swimming Coaches Association Coach of the Year and coached Tom Dolan to three medals in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.